Ministry of Education charts alternatives for school timetables
The Ministry of Education in Russia has prepared scheduling options for the 2025/26 academic year for grades 1-11, marking a significant shift in the educational landscape. The new academic year is set to start on September 1 and end on May 26.
One of the key aspects of the upcoming academic year is the revised curriculum in patriotic education. The Basics of Life Safety course will see an expansion, incorporating military training modules such as tactical medicine, firearms, drill training, instructions on UAVs, and weapons of mass destruction. Approximately half of the course's content will be dedicated to ideological conditioning, emphasizing an anti-extremist stance, understanding Russia’s global role, pride in the Motherland, and readiness to defend it.
Some schools, particularly in occupied territories, may incorporate specialized classes affiliated with security agencies. These classes may see students wearing camouflage uniforms and receiving training from former special forces personnel.
Two thematic focus areas, "Important Discussions" and "Russia - My Horizons," are likely to be featured prominently in educational and extracurricular programs. These areas are expected to provide discussion forums or topic-centered activities aimed at ideological education and national identity reinforcement.
The scheduling options consider 5- and 6-day weeks, and include examples of lesson and extracurricular activity distribution. The formats also emphasize the need for autumn, winter, and spring holidays of at least seven days each. Additionally, there are specific provisions for additional holidays for first-graders in February, requiring a minimum of seven days.
Education will be organized in quarters or trimesters, and the Ministry has prepared five scheduling options for primary school, six for middle school, and 19 for high school. The new school year's scheduling does not affect the 'Important Discussions' or 'Russia - My Horizons' elements in the scheduling options, nor has it been mentioned in relation to the lesson and extracurricular activity distribution.
On Thursdays, grades 6-11 will commence with 'Russia - My Horizons'. The Ministry of Education has also presented a new school uniform standard, but the details of this standard have not been specified.
It's important to note that the search results did not provide explicit detailed scheduling options or lesson and extracurricular activity distributions for grades 1-11 for the 2025/26 academic year. The best summary is that the 2025/26 academic year in Russia for grades 1-11 features curricular reforms with a significant ideological and patriotic education component, integrating military and security-related instruction, alongside thematic activities presumably focused on national identity and discussion formats labeled as "Important Discussions" and "Russia - My Horizons."
For detailed official scheduling and lesson distribution, consulting the Russian Ministry of Education or specific school district publications for 2025/26 would be necessary. The scheduling models were developed considering the federal educational plan and sanitary norms agreed with Rospotrebnadzor.
